The opposite of consolidation: IBM’s data centre in a box
While the rest of the industry is moving full steamed towards data centre consolidation to reduce overheads and improve efficiency, IBM has introduced three new platforms that allow enterprise and existing data centre operators to improve their existing infrastructure without a massive migration to bigger facilities.
The three new offerings, Enterprise Modular Data Centre, Portable Modular Data Centre, and High-Density Zone, are touted to offer improve energy efficiency through fully integrated cooling and power systems. The modular design allows data centre operations to scale up as the need arises, enabling more efficiency in both capex and opex terms, the company claims. All three new products are offered in “shrink-wrapped” packages.
The Enterprise Modular Data Centre comes in standard 5,000 square feet and 20,000 square feet formats. According to IBM, building in smaller, standardized modules and scaling up to match corporate requirements, customers can defer up to 40% of the capex and 50% of the opex when compared to building a large facility and gradually filling up the capacity.
For even smaller deployments, IBM’s Portable Modular Data Centre is essentially a mini-data centre that comes in a shipping container. The pod-like package is equipped with a complete data centre physical infrastructure, including power and cooling systems and remote monitoring features, and features all the elements of the secure operating environments found in traditional “raised-floor” data centers, including protection from fire, smoke, humidity, condensation and temperature changes.
Lastly, the High Density Zone is a modular system designed to help data centre operators running out of capacity. The package is designed to be swapped into existing facilities to increase operational capacity.
Category: Data centres
